


You x Can x Smile x Again

by Rawrzimon



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Heaven's Arena Arc (Hunter X Hunter), Hunter Exam (Hunter X Hunter), Multi, My First Work in This Fandom, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:42:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24153760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rawrzimon/pseuds/Rawrzimon
Summary: Mona Lisa is relaxing on the beach one day, and suddenly gets swept up into a riptide. After a tumultuous adventure, she gets spit out of the mouth of an unknown creature and looks into the face of someone familiar: characters from an anime she had watched before. How does she learn to survive in a world full of unknown creatures and humans with superpower like abilities? This isn't an office anymore - it's the world of Hunter x Hunter!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

The air tasted of salt as she lounged on the beach, hair fanned out above her forming tendril-like waves. 

This day trip was sorely needed. She had told herself countless times that it wasn’t selfish to take a single day out of her days off to drive to the closest beach, read a book, and simply relax. Work demanded a lot of her time, but due to recent constraints they were forcing people to use their vacation time. 

It didn’t take much convincing to get her to use one of those days to ‘relieve’ the pressure put on the company. 

There wasn’t anyone else around her on the beach. It was just her, her phone playing music, and her sunglasses – well and her bathing suit obviously. Unfortunately, the beach wasn’t _that_ isolated or else all of her body would be relishing the sun’s rays. 

A few straggling seagulls circled above her, their calls echoing calmly through the air. It was the perfect serenade of nature that led her into a calm nap. After a heavy application of her coconut scented sunscreen, she laid on her stomach and changed the music to something that resembled ‘cardio pop’ to keep the mood upbeat yet relaxing. The sound of the waves delicately crashing against the sand was already pleasant enough, a mix of familiar songs would only emphasize that. 

Hours must have gone by, because the tide level rose to her calf when it had been twenty feet away before. She cursed and pushed up immediately from her towel, gripping her phone, which was thankfully in a water proof case, and her clothes. She hopped on one leg in a sad attempt to get her jean shorts on, phone in between her teeth as she watched the quickly rising tide. 

“What the actual fuck,” she murmured in frustration, confusion rattling her brain. It couldn’t have been hours – her back didn’t even hurt from a potential sunburn as if she had been asleep for that long. Things weren’t adding up. She glanced up at the sun in the sky and it had barely moved from its position, and her phone said it had only been twenty minutes. Where did all of the water come from? 

“That’s it, I’m out of here.” Without hesitation she threw all of her things into her beach bag: her towel, her shirt, sunscreen, phone, and a book that hadn’t cracked open on ‘how to be a good leader’. It was something her management had assigned the team to read, but _lord have mercy_ she did not have the mental fortitude to read about techniques developed by someone that had never worked in her field. 

As she gathered her things, water began to gather higher and higher. As the current came in and out, the pull towards the ocean grew stronger. She turned to run back to her car, but her foot slipped on a smooth rock under the sand and brought her face first into the water. Instead of getting back up on her knees, the water pulled out towards the ocean. Hands raked like claws in the sand, fighting like a rabid animal until she felt nothing but open water underneath her feet. 

_Fuck, riptide. What am I supposed to do in this situation? Swim sideways?_

She cast her eyes to the beach and then attempted to body until it was positioned parallel. Her arms moved with broad strokes, feet kicking in unison. It had been a long time she had to _forcefully_ swim, probably last time was summer camp when she was a teenager running drills in the pool, but with the panic and fear in her heart the rhythm came back as easy as riding a bike. 

Even still, the current was stronger. 

It pulled and tugged at her body until she was underwater, scrambling to get to the top. 

There was a large thud as her head hit against a rock on the bottom of the ocean floor, blood immediately darkening the water around her. Her vision came in spots as she fought consciousness, but what she could see was the water above her lengthening and lengthening. It was apparent that her body was getting deeper, but what could she do? 

The color of the water changed, and it might have been the head trauma but she thought she saw some sort of lightning crackling through the water in front of her. 

Then, the quality of the water went from bright to pitch black. 

The pressure around her body increased and it was as if she was in a tight embrace all over her body. The breath escaped from her lungs in small bubbles, her vision flickering like a strobe with her hands out grasping. There was a burning like fire within her lungs, and her hands scrambled at her throat as if ripping it open would grant the secret to breathing underwater. 

Her body, floating like a leaf in the wind, suddenly was shot up and she was surrounded with air bubbles. In a frantic inhale, she coughed amidst the assumed heat vent before being thrust back into the inky water. _What is this a sonic game?!_ Thankfully the vent ascended her into a light-filled area where she could see what was around her, but that was the least of her concerns, because what she could see was monstrous. 

Creatures she had never recognized swam before her eyes: a crocodile resembling creature with front claws and arms but with a fish-like dorsal side. Its body was the size of a school bus. 

The air she had just regained was lost when she screamed, scrambling her arms and swimming back until she was lifted again in another vent. 

The air loss, the movement, and the blood streaming from her head kept her vision intermittent. The waves tossed her back and forth and at one point she thought she felt herself being carried against the current, small arm-like things wrapped around her body. She was helpless, and then her worst fear was realized. From the light embrace she was swept up into a current and then landed on a flat surface. 

It wasn’t sand, but it was smooth and slimy underneath her hands and feet. Immediately she coughed and vomited up salt water, her body racked with pain as it emptied out everything that was taken in. Blood saturated her hair with the ocean water and there were now small scratches all over her arms and legs. The water level was at her waist and everything was pitch black. Small objects slid across her legs as she walked until she could feel some semblance of a wall. 

“I’ve seen Pinocchio before, never thought I would be in it,” she whispered to herself as she rummaged through her bag that had miraculously stayed tight and twisted around her shoulder. Even self-consciously, keeping her phone on her body was a high priority. It was shoved in the bottom of her beach bag, wrapped in the soaking wet towel. ‘Life-proof’ case and all, the phone reacted when she pressed the button on the side of the phone to turn the screen on. 

Small victory, but she let out a cry of triumph before swiping up on the screen to turn on her flashlight. 

“Oh fuck.” 

Bodies, or parts of them, floated in the murky salt water in front of her. Thankfully not humanoid, but scaly and marine looking. The area smelled like the fish market near her house and looked even worse. There were remnants of bones floating in the water, and when she turned her flashlight to see the ‘front’ of the area she groaned. 

“That’s what I thought. Teeth. Loads of teeth.” Sharp, glistening teeth that were her size blocked her path. The smell was worse towards the front, and she could only guess it was because of all the leftover ‘food’ stuck at the bottom of the creature’s gums. It didn’t look like this thing swallowed frequently, or it ate _a lot_. 

After some rummaging, she was able to find a floating plank of wood that was big enough for her to pull and sit on towards the mouth of the beast. Anytime the creature opened its mouth, even slightly, the whole area would flood with water and she would be left the same sputtering mess as when she entered. “This can’t last forever.” 

Hours, it lasted hours – _at least_. The time and date were glitching on her phone, but she could just tell that time was passing just from her energy level. She had found a pile of rubble to lean herself against to allow herself to fall asleep. The basic first aid knowledge was forced to obtain for her office, because you ‘never know’ when something might happen, told her that she needed to stay awake. She probably had a concussion and there was a chance that she wouldn’t wake up. 

_Well, chances are, I will probably die. So might as well sleep._

The darkness of sleep consumed her quickly, and she was awoken swiftly with another large wave of water entering the mouth of the creature. 

Light poured in through the opening – _so it must be daytime again -_ and instead of it being just the usual gust of water, a gigantic, silver hook came in and then retracted back through the creature’s maw. 

“Jesus Christ almighty!” 

Just when she caught her bearings, a large spurt of blood burst from the creature’s mouth from the impact site of the hook and drenched her from head to toe. It smelled like rotted flesh and copper, which made her vomit what was left of her stomach contents immediately into the puddle of salt water around her. “Wonderful, just wonder-fuck!” Just as she was cursing to herself the hook went tight on the skin, the entire body of the creature jerked upwards, the motion throwing her against its cheek and then back into a pile of even further rotted leftovers. 

Apparently, her current host was putting up a fight, the mouth moving back and forth, side to side, until there was a large _up_ movement. Collision after collision, the blood began dripping from her head once more and making her dizzy. The water sloshed around her and the images all began to blur. There was nothing to grasp with her hands, and soon she felt her body fly through the air and crash against something hard. Out of reflex, her hands flexed against the new surface. 

Wood? 

“Nice catch, Menchi! I can’t believe it took us seven days to find this thing,” A friendly, large sounding voice called out. 

_Who the fuck is Menchi? Why does that name sound familiar?_

_“_ Yeah! I’m glad we caught the illusive deep-diving croc but it looks like we caught something else,” This voice was much more feminine, but also happy sounding. 

She felt a nudge on her side as she tried to push herself up, the nudge assisting her in flipping her onto her back. She opened her eyes to see a clear day sky, lovely puffs of clouds looking down at her. The female voice sounded again, “Hey! You alright? What’s your name?” 

Blood sputtered at her lips as she coughed, wiping it away with the back of her trembling hand. “Roxanne.” _Damn my Police loving parents._ “Where am I?” 

“You don’t know? You’re in the ocean on the outskirts of the islands of the Dark Continent!” 

_Wait why does that sound familiar too?_


	2. Chapter 2

Thankfully after capturing the deep diving crocodile, Roxanne’s two saviors began to head back to the mainland. They put bandages on the scrapes on her arms and put some weird mud and leaf combination on her head that began to harden in her hair - which had crusted from the blood and the salt, leaving it stuck upwards with her hair in different strands. Like a Medusa that had bedhead. She had leaned over the side of the boat and caught a look at her reflection, after cursing and panicking over how _clear_ the water was, which meant she could see every little and big creature swimming around. 

“Isn’t it beautiful? That’s what is so cool about the peaceful waters on these outskirts. You can see everything!” Menchi commented in between bites of a sandwich she had packed. 

“Yeah, but what are you guys doing down here? Isn’t the Dark Continent dangerous?” She asked, grasping at straws from what she remembered from the show even though it had been at least a year since she watched it last. _This has to all be a dream, who gets spit out by a giant crocodile? It has to be my_ _Ambien_ _._

Menchi nodded before pointing over to the croc, which was hanging from a giant hook at the front of their fishing boat as the motor pushed them quickly over the still waters. “Very. Travelers are actually not allowed there without a specific sanction, and even then, there are all of these rules about people returning. The Chairmen has only gone once or twice, right, Buhara?” 

The large, rotund man responded with a hum, a larger than normal chicken leg disappearing into his mouth. “Mhhmm - said it was scary stuff.” 

The blue-haired hunter with equally crazy hair that reminded her of Angelica from Rugrats sat forward with a curious expression on her face, looking Roxanne up and down. “Okay Roxxi – how did you end up inside the Croc? You’re pretty lucky.” 

_What to say, what to say?_ Considering it was all a dream, what did it matter what she said to them? It would all go away in a few hours anyways. Lightning didn’t happen underwater, there weren’t monstrous deep-diving crocodiles, none of it could be ready. Roxanne itched at the area around the healing mud before flicking it off her finger to the side. “So - I was sunbathing on the beach, and this crazy riptide pulled me into the water.” 

“Which beach?” 

“Pensacola.” 

“Where’s that?” 

“Florida.” 

Menchi and Buhara shared a look, the larger one mumbling under his breath – which was not subtle at all. “Have you ever heard of Florida?” 

“It’s a southern state in the United States of America.” 

They both continued to stare blankly at her with no signs of recognition in their expressions. Roxanne took in a deep breath and sighed, “North America?” 

“We have the United States of Saherta, but nowhere that you’re mentioning,” Buhara stated in between bites of a mystery jerky he had pulled out of a large bag. 

“Maybe you hit your head harder than we thought, Roxxi.” 

“I’m honestly beginning to think this is all some sort of weird dream. You guys are really familiar but I have never met you before in my life.” 

The two looked at each other in a shared glance of unease before turning back to her. “Familiar how?” 

_Why lie? “_ A showed I used to watch.” 

Her two rescuers shared an excited smile, “You watched the Adventures of the Gourmet Hunters?! I didn’t think anyone watched that show!!” Menchi leaned back and pumped her fists in the air. 

Roxanne rubbed the back of her neck with a shrug, “Not quite, but what was your show about?” 

Buhara licked the remnants of his lunch from his fingers before smiling, “A camera crew followed us for a few weeks as we tried to discover the rarest ingredients! This hunt actually would have been a great one for people to see.” 

The body of the deep-diving croc was beginning to ooze something that she was not the biggest fan of. She scooted back even further on the boat away from the slow growing puddle. “What is so special about this croc?” 

Both of them perked up where they were sitting, Menchi drawing out one of her swords before lifting open the lip of the croc. “See these teeth? Teeth are some of the strongest bones in the human body because of their enamel. Same goes for the crocs, but these ones - “ She cupped her hands around one, and in the shadow, Roxanne could see that they glowed slightly. “They glow in the dark! That bioluminescent trait is very valuable and when prepared correctly and ground down, brings out the sweetness of a meat when you cook it, even the toughest of game. The meat of this croc itself is pretty salty and gamey due to where it lives, but the teeth are really what people go for. Here!” 

Menchi wrenched out two teeth with a clean swipe of her blade, tossing them over to Roxanne with a wink. “Keep them, as a reminder of your almost death.” 

She looked at them and picked one, running her finger over the edge of it and pressing to see if it was sharp. Sure enough, a small push-pin sized wound opened up on the pad of her finger and blood ran down the side. “That’s going to get infected. . . “ 

Menchi quickly pulled out a small jar of ointment and almost slapped it on her finger. “Idiot! Like you need to lose more blood. Give it to me - I'll make a necklace out of it or something once we return to our cabin for the night. We go home in the morning with our bounty.” 

Buhara stood up on the boat, which caused it to tilt back and forth with each step he took towards her, before patting her gently on the head like a child would a dog. “You’ve been through a lot. You should rest while we make our way back. It won’t be for a couple of hours now.” 

As the comically rotund man spoke, the effects of her day sneakily came over her mind like a cloud. It was probably a concussion, but the sleep that was in front of her sounded tempting. Menchi pushed a pile of rope over with her foot so that Roxxi could use it as a makeshift pillow. She curled her body around it and rested her bloodied head on top of it. Darkness quickly overtook her, and as she faded into sleep, she heard whispered voices: 

“What do you think, Buhara? Do you believe her?” 

“Mm-hmm. I don’t really sense any lying from her, or she’s really good at it - “ 

“But with the head wound it would be hard to keep up an act, you’re right. What do you think we should do?” 

“When we get back to the cabin, we’ll use our computer to look at the world map. Just in case.” 

“If not. . . what do you think it could mean, big guy?” 

* * *

It was thankfully a dreamless sleep, but the rocking of the boat as they went ripped her from her sleep multiple times. At one point she woke screaming and found that instead of resting on the rope, her head was in Menchi’s lap and the gourmet hunter was tending to her head wound. “Go back to sleep. It’s okay, you’re still safe with us.” 

In her sleepiness she mumbled out: “Not inside a crocodile?” 

Buhara laughed, the booming sound odd in the silent night on the ocean. “Nope. Still dead.” 

* * *

The next time she woke everything was warm. There was no ocean breeze as if they were still on the boat, but by the smell she had to be close to it because there was still salt in the air. Everything in her body hurt. Typically, she called the period after working out the ‘48 hours fuck you’, but this was something different entirely. Apparently being thrashed around by the ocean took its toll. She groaned at the effort it took to sit up in bed. The blood on her felt harder from sitting overnight and there were things that looked like road burn all over her arms and legs from hitting the rocks and corral. 

It took a few minutes for her to summon the strength to stand and walk over to a small sink and mirror in the small room, its window open to the visible beach. The sun looked like it was still morning, at least from her guess. It wasn’t straight above them and she knew from Rugrats that ‘no shadow time’ meant noon. As she looked in the mirror, she realized either the ocean reflection was kind or that she had gotten worse overnight. There was bruising and swelling all over her forehead in fifty different shades of purple and blue. 

The dried blood covered over half of her head and Menchi’s ointment covered it on top. The strange thing, instead of her hair being its mix of light brown and what her mother called ‘dishwater blonde’, it was a twisted kind of green, an odd mix between the sage and juniper that grew at her relative’s house in the desert. Even worse, it wasn’t even hanging down by her shoulders, it was standing in the air on its own. “This has to the salt water. . . “ 

She used the sink to wash what she could of her face and _very lightly_ dry it off before going out into the common area. Buhara was snoozing on the couch with his mouth wide open and Menchi was sitting at the breakfast counter on the computer. Roxanne cleared her throat and slowly walked across the room, “Hey, how’s it going?” 

“Oh!” Menchi slammed the computer shut before turning on her chair and looking Roxanne up and down. She did a slow, low whistle. “Wow! You look terrible, Roxxi!” 

“Thanks, what were you doing that was so top secret?” She teased on her way to the coffee maker. Knowing the two Gourmet Hunters, it was probably ground from the rarest beans in the lowest valley of some carnivorous countryside. Still, tasted better than Folger’s. 

“Just - checking emails. Hunter stuff. You know how it is.” She then swallowed and cast her eyes down to the floor. “Well, I guess you don’t. Did you want to shower this morning?” 

Roxanne took another sip then groaned, sinking into her posture to show her desperation. “Yes please for the love of all that is good and holy!!” 

Menchi put her hands up with a smile, “All you had to do was ask. Towels are in the shower room, first room, on the left. Good thing is, it’s big enough for the sleepy guy over there to fit in, so for the rest of us it feels like a luxury. Oh! Take some of these before you shower; it’ll help.” 

She pushed forward two small purple pills and Roxanne picked them up and looked at them. “What are these?” 

“They help with pain without making you tired, especially with bruises and swelling.” 

“Oh, like Advil?” 

“What?” 

“Never mind – first room on the left?” She knocked back the pills with a large sip of coffee before walking off, waving a hand at her. “If you hear a big sound it’s because I fell !” 

“Don’t you dare!” Menchi called out as Roxanne disappeared into the shower. She was right – it was gigantic. 

The water came down like a pleasant waterfall that still agitated her bruise. As it started, she had to calmly whisper to herself, “This isn’t the ocean; you are safe.” The water didn’t taste like salt and her feet were firmly on the ground. The heat felt good on her injuries and sore muscles, so after a few minutes she was able to get around her shampooing her twisted hair and washing the blood and croc grime from her skin. 

For the first time in over a day, she didn’t stink of rotting fish. 

She spent a couple extra minutes drying herself off and running a brush she found on the counter through her hair – it had to be Menchi’s because it had teal colored hair stuck in the fibers. Thankfully her hair returned to its normal gravity obeying self when it was wet so even though the odd color remained, Roxanne felt somewhat returned to herself, minus the horrific bruising. 

But at least she was a clean battered person. 

As she went to turn the doorknob to go out, she heard Menchi talking and decided to hesitate. “Chairman, you wouldn’t believe it. We picked her up from _inside_ of our bounty. She survived!” 

“That is pretty unusual!” The voice sounded much older and at this point Roxanne had her ear pressed up against the door. 

“I looked everywhere in the computer, where she’s from is nowhere on the map. Do you think it could be in the Dark Continent?” 

“Not in the slightest. At least the names you told me sound like a more civilized, modern place. I trust you when you say she wasn’t lying.” 

“So where do you think she came from, Isaac?” Her voice was almost scared, which depend the pit that was growing within Roxxi’s stomach. 

“I am unsure. Bring her to me, I can have a blimp to your location in a few hours. There’s a port not far from there. See you soon!” The call then ended and Roxxi turned her back to the door, slowly sliding down until her butt hit the floor. 

_Chairman? Isn’t that the old guy – oh shit._

_Knock knock knock._

_“_ Did you die in there?” 

“No, just feeling dizzy! Needed to sit down!” 

“Let me help you -” The door opened on her back and she pressed it closed. 

“No! I’m fine. Really!” 

“Now I can tell you’re lying – let me in!” Menchi pushed the door open with her hip, which didn’t take much, and then kneeled down in front of Roxxi with a sterner look on her face. “You heard my phone call, I take it?” 

Roxanne rubbed her bruised forehead then nodded. “With the Chairman – yeah.” 

“Do you know who he is?” 

“Obviously.” 

“Then you know I had to. What you’re saying, it sounds so crazy. Maybe he can make some sense of it. He's a crazy old geezer, but he has his moments. Look, I know we just met, but if you promise not to lie to me, I have your back, alright? Buhara too. Alright? No lies?” 

Roxxi met her gaze, feeling either anxiety or a flushing on her chest from being that close. She swallowed down her nerves and nodded. “No lies.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been re-watching the show for the umpteenth time and got struck with inspiration to write out a fic - we'll see where it goes!


End file.
